"I think that New Mexico was the greatest experience from the outside world that I ever had.
It certainly changed me forever ... The moment I saw the brilliant proud morning (sun) shine high up over the deserts of Santa Fe,
something stood still in my soul."
~D.H. Lawrence

Saturday, November 22, 2008

"MAY ALL YOUR TRAILS BE CROOKED, WINDING, LONESOME, DANGEROUS, LEADING TO THE MOST AMAZING VIEW ... WHERE SOMETHING STRANGE AND MORE BEAUTIFUL AND MORE FULL OF WONDER THAN YOUR DEEPEST DREAMS WAITS FOR YOU."

Thursday, November 13, 2008

The piñon pine is New Mexico’s state tree. The piñon is a small, drought-hardy, long-lived two-needled pine tree which grows wild in high desert mountain areas of New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah. It was adopted as our state tree on March 16, 1949.

The best part about piñon trees is that they produce the wonderful edible piñon nuts which were a staple food of the Indians who lived in this area hundreds of years ago. Piñon nuts served as a food source which helped ancient cultures to survive.

Piñon nuts are still a favorite New Mexico treat, and they are in season in September and October. They can be expensive to purchase due to the variability in the size of the crop from year to year. Hence, wherever piñon trees are growing and producing nuts, you will see people out gathering them. Right now it is common to see cars and trucks parked along the highways and country roads where the drivers are out among the trees, searching for nuts.

According to commercial piñon nut growers, the 2008 crop is in short supply (therefore expensive) but is reported to have the largest size and best flavor in years.

Out here in the Eldorado area, finding places to collect wild piñon nuts has been more difficult in recent years because so many of our piñon trees were killed off by the bark beetle about ten years ago. But you can still see cars parked along the roads, with owners out hunting for the wonderful nuts.

Piñon trees and piñon nuts -- a part of our local culture here.

(This picture was taken Nov. 9, 2008 at Pecos Pueblo.)

Some of the information for this post came from About Piñon Nuts.com and The Pinon Pine -- A Natural and Cultural History, with a section on pine-nut cookery by Harriette LannerUniversity of Nevada Press, 1981 (reprinted 2001)

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

The Pueblo at Pecos was a thriving functioning pueblo along the Pecos River in Northern New Mexico for over 400 years. It was established sometime in the 14th century and abandoned in the 19th century.

It is all in ruins now, and you can take a trail through the pueblo grounds, look at the remains, gaze at beautiful scenery....and wonder what life was like here hundreds of years ago.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Our purpose was to purchase senior cards -- a great deal by the National Parks Association. If you are 62 years old or over, you can buy a lifetime National Parks card for $10 that gets you into any national park in the United States for free for the rest of your life.

While we were at Pecos, we walked the trail around the pueblo ruins. There are a lot of ruins remaining there, as well as the remains of the large adobe mission church, built in the 1600s. The setting at the Pecos Pueblo contains stunning scenery in every direction.

Here are several pictures of the Visitor Center at the Pecos National Historic Park; it's a wonderful place with a museum, small theater and gift shop.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

This is our first vote in New Mexico; that alone made this quite an exciting day! It is a glorious fall New Mexico day -- clear blue sky, sunshine, a little wind and the temperature in the 50's.

We arrived at our polling place -- Eldorado Elementary school -- around 10:00 a.m. Mid-morning is always a good time to go to the polls because most of the early morning rush is over.

There were 4 precincts voting at our polling location - and NO LINES. We didn't expect to be in and out so quickly.

Paper ballots are used at this polling location; I haven't used paper ballots in years. Everything was done in a professional and organized manner at our polling place. The poll workers were friendly and polite.

I voted straight Republican:

Senator McCain and Gov. Palin for President and Vice-PresidentSteve Pearce for U.S. SenateDan East for U.S. 3rd Congressional District

ALL the rest of the races were state and local -- and all were unopposed Democrats, so I didn't need to vote in those.

There were exit pollsters in the parking lot outside the school. I am not interested in exit polling, so I declined.

I LOVE election day ... I love going to the polls .. I love voting .. I love this all-American day. I always think on election day how fortunate we are to be living in this country where we can vote in free and open elections.